Employer Ethics and Social Media Access
Employer Ethics and Social Media Access
Abstract
For this assignment on moral reasoning I will be discussing the ethics behind the new trend of potential employers asking for Facebook passwords and or current employers. Is it unethical to give access to such accounts, do we have a right to protect certain things that we put on the internet or is it for public view even if you’re account is set to private. If we become employees of an organization are we then giving up all rights to a private life via the Internet?
Employer Ethics and Social Media 1
Social networking has become a part of the majority of Americans every day life. So much lives and breathes on these sites. The world has become such a fast pace busy world that a growing presence is being communicated online rather it is welcomed or not. Lines are quickly becoming blurred between professional and personal relationships but where does the line get drawn? The amount of time spent on these site have grown excessively, “as of June, 22.7 percent of Americans ' online time was spent on social media, a 43 percent increase from just a year earlier. By contrast, only 1 percent of time was spent on search engines and about 8 percent on e-mail” (Search Engine Watch, 2010). With this rise people lives will be now seen through a looking glass kind of mirror. Relationships of all kinds, both professional and personal will be able to see you in a new, more translucent way. “The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly” because of the dominance of social network sites — where people use their real names — and the extent to which information is now shared online, said Zuckerberg. That 's good, he said, because “having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity” (Danah Boyd, 2010). However is it a lack of integrity when you wouldn’t
Abstract
For this assignment on moral reasoning I will be discussing the ethics behind the new trend of potential employers asking for Facebook passwords and or current employers. Is it unethical to give access to such accounts, do we have a right to protect certain things that we put on the internet or is it for public view even if you’re account is set to private. If we become employees of an organization are we then giving up all rights to a private life via the Internet?
Employer Ethics and Social Media 1
Social networking has become a part of the majority of Americans every day life. So much lives and breathes on these sites. The world has become such a fast pace busy world that a growing presence is being communicated online rather it is welcomed or not. Lines are quickly becoming blurred between professional and personal relationships but where does the line get drawn? The amount of time spent on these site have grown excessively, “as of June, 22.7 percent of Americans ' online time was spent on social media, a 43 percent increase from just a year earlier. By contrast, only 1 percent of time was spent on search engines and about 8 percent on e-mail” (Search Engine Watch, 2010). With this rise people lives will be now seen through a looking glass kind of mirror. Relationships of all kinds, both professional and personal will be able to see you in a new, more translucent way. “The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly” because of the dominance of social network sites — where people use their real names — and the extent to which information is now shared online, said Zuckerberg. That 's good, he said, because “having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity” (Danah Boyd, 2010). However is it a lack of integrity when you wouldn’t
References: Quoted in “Facebook 's Zuckerberg: ‘Having Two Identities for Yourself Is an Example of a Lack of Integrity,’” Michael Zimmer blog, May 14, 2010, http://michaelzimmer.org/2010/05/14/facebooks-zuckerberg-having-two-identities-for-yourself-is-an-example-of-a-lack-of-integrity. Danah M. Boyd and Nicole B. Ellison, “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communications, October 2007, article 11, http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html and David Kirkpatrick, The Facebook Effect (2010). Teachers aide fired for not giving Facebook passworkd, KHOU.com, Retrieved June 17, 2012, from Readings and Resources: http://www.khou.com/news/Teachers-aide-fired-for-not-giving-up-Facebook-password-145877155.html “MySpace, America 's Number One,” Mashable.com, July 11, Retrieved June 17, 2012, from Readings and Resources: http://mashable.com/2006/07/11/myspace-americas-number-one.